The monk, the venerable, answered a few questions in the Saturday Personal Questions & Dharma Discussion. First is about the Four Noble Truth. It seems that these truths are true that they are not only accepted by Buddhists, but also by the mass.

The Truth of Dukkha (hot)is that all conditional phenomena and experiences are not ultimately satisfying;

The Truth of the Origin of Dukkhais that craving for and clinging to what is pleasurable and aversion to what is not pleasurable result in becoming, rebirth, dissatisfaction, and redeath;

The Truth of the Cessation of Dukkhais that putting an end to this craving and clinging also means that rebirth, dissatisfaction, and redeath can no longer arise;

The Truth of the Path Of Liberation from Dukkhais that by following the Noble Eightfold Path—namely, behaving decently, cultivating discipline, and practicing mindfulness and meditation—an end can be put to craving, to clinging, to becoming, to rebirth, to dissatisfaction, and to redeath.

Second, a lady asked why are good people suffering, why was there a bushfire, why were some people dead while some not? The venerable answered in a witty manner. The cause and effect law is that doing good deeds will bring good results; bad deeds bring bad ones. Unlike other religions, Buddhism allows for many lives before and after this life, which brings more possibilities of suffering. But if you are going to understand all the karmic relationships, such as why this happens to this person, that happens to the other guy, your mind probably will explode.

Another lady asked what happens to the dead people, where are they and what are the lives they are living in the other world? The venerable truthfully said, “I don’t know.” The venerable told us when he was twenty, he was stupidly (in the venerable’s words) taking drugs; he didn’t know what’s life like in the forties. Even in his sixties now, he still does not know what happens when he dies. He repeated the good deeds bring good results; bad deeds bring bad results. This cause and effect law is proved by his life. It is “interesting” to see that our relatives passed away. It is not that a good Buddhist will not hurt, but that we will feel that the karmic relationship is breaking down. Let it go. It is hot and painful to hold a hot stone.

These words are like the icy cold water in the hot summer. Hope you calm down and meditate.

Everyone deserves metta, or loving kindness, or happiness. The only way to overcome anger is to cultivate loving kindness.

These words coming from Monk’s mouth with the thunders from the sky.

To choose to think of metta or not, that’s the question. The monk answered a young man’s question on how to give loving-kindness to a lion eating a zebra. It’s difficult for us to stop wars, disasters or violence. But we might be able to overcome our own anger or fear by compassionate thinking.

Dear all,
UQ Buds welcomes you to join us for the third sutra study. We will keep learning Chapter 1 “The Human Condition” of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s book “In the Buddha’s Words”. The session will start with 30 minutes meditation and free vegetarian food. The schedule is below:

By visiting Buddhist monk, Ven. Sobitha, from Siyane Vipassana Meditation Centre Kanduboda Sri Lanka. This centre is an international meditation centre, which started under Mahasi Sayadaw, a most venerated meditation master from Burma. The centre gives retreats in the style of Mahasi Sayadaw. (google link: kanduboda meditation centre). The retreat will emphasis on how to practice mindfulness during one’s daily activities. Noble silence will be observed during the retreat. There will be both sitting and walking meditations and teachings in between.

It is possible to come for 1 or 2 days or for the day. However to get the maximum benefit of the retreat, 7 day residential is recommended. If you live in Brisbane, please byo linen. Spaces also available for caravan/van parking.

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The Buddha said to Ananda: In propagating the Dharma to others, establish well five things:

“Propagate the Dharma in a gradual way;
Propagate the Dharma with the goal in mind;
Propagate the Dharma with kindliness;
Do not Propagate the Dharma as a means of gain;
Propagate the Dharma without harm to anybody."